British and Canadian synchrotrons sign agreement

Making the power of synchrotron light available to more businesses, building new experimental equipment and developing new capabilities are three of the areas of collaboration in a trans-Atlantic memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Diamond Light Source Ltd. near Oxford and Canadian Light Source Inc. (CLS) in Saskatoon.

The agreement paves the way for the two synchrotron light sources to work together on joint projects related to their industrial science programmes, such as exchanges of staff, marketing materials, and coordinating access for clients to capabilities that are available at one synchrotron but not the other.

"Diamond and the CLS have been working closely together for some time," said Josef Hormes, Executive Director of the CLS. "Now that we have this formal agreement, I am looking forward to a very bright future where the expertise of both our facilities can be combined to accomplish momentous things for fundamental and industrial science."

Prof Gerd Materlik FRS, Chief Executive of Diamond Light Source, said: "We are delighted to be working with our colleagues at Canadian Light Source, and have enjoyed some very fruitful collaborative projects so far. This MOU will be a platform for even closer co-operation in future."

Both facilities are recognized as leaders when it comes to industrial synchrotron research.

Through the MOU, researchers and engineers at both facilities will also collaborate on projects aimed at developing new capabilities in terms of accelerator technology, X-ray optics and computer control software.